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Naveena pointed me to K Two, by Nicole Seiler’s dance company. It’s described as an improvised performance in which two dancers explore the limits of video game character movements as executed by human bodies. Yes, it was the video game characters bit that got my attention. So, I went.

Organized by Prakriti Foundation, the whole thing lasted about 20 minutes, but I had to sit through about an hour long awards ceremony (yeah, total yawn) before the K Two performance. The awards ceremony was for contemporary dance and I think I missed the best part which were the dance performances that happened over the prior two days.

K Two itself was a bit of a let down – no audio to accompany the performance. But the most egregious part was the terrible, terrible organization of the event itself. As you can see from the pics, it happened in the dark with hand held, low power torches as the primary sources of light, so a lot of the times, not much was visible. (Note that the pics have been super brightened in post.) It was a (physically) moving performance and they used a pre-determined pathway within Kalakshetra. Unfortunately the pathway was poorly lit, unmarked and so, the crowd which moved along with the performers often almost got in their way and definitely blocked the handful of photographers and the lone videographer. Since the movement pathway wasn’t clearly marked, we never knew where they were going. I almost got knocked down once when one of them started simulating how awkwardly video game characters ran. The crowd, mostly unfamiliar with video games, was rather unappreciative, giggling and snickering – bloody plebs. Overall what might have been a somewhat entertaining experience turned out to be something of a waste of a Sunday evening, in no part whatsoever due to the actual performance itself.